An unknown player from Kentucky took advantage of the opportunity and blasted his way to the top of the leader board after day one. With a chip count in excess of 270,000, he is almost double that of anyone else in the tournament.

With the way the day started out, it looked like a lot of the pros were there for nothing more than a quick appearance. Early in the session, a lot of the notable names were sent to the rail. As the dinner break arrived, several more were sent home and all the while Billy Kopp continued to add to his stack.

As good as Kopp’s day was, the second place chip holder’s was miraculous. Pilgrim was all but out of the tournament after losing a monster hand and found himself looking at only 9,400 in chips. For the next 30 minutes, he went on a tear that was unlike anything that anyone has seen before. He found himself in a 3 way hand and got the best of it with a straight and then let that momentum carry him to a stack of over 170,000.

Play stopped for the day when the field was narrowed down to 63 players. They will play down to the final table on Day 2 and then play to the finish on Day 3. It is rather amusing again that they choose to have a multi-day tournament in what could easily have been a one day tournament. You have to wonder if the structure is starting to hurt the turnout instead of helping it.